A happy union?

Ed Gorman attended an amusing first official 'outing' of Dalts and Cayard

This was a great bit of theatre in a Volvo Race which has lacked star quality and personality. The one and only Grant Dalton - the tough charismatic skipper of Amer Sports One - welcoming his old enemy Paul Cayard into the afterguard of his pink and grey Volvo 60.

Cayard flew in from California looking pale and thin after spending most of the autumn and Christmas with his family, following his sidelining from Larry Ellison's Oracle America's Cup outfit. No sooner had he got here than he was off for a two-day spin with Dalts and his crew to get to grips with his role as tactician in place of Dee Smith. They sailed some good miles under clear blue skies then anchored for the night in Smokebush Bay where the boys went ashore for a few beers while Cayard stayed on board and got an early night.

When they got back to Auckland's Viaduct Harbour, Cayard was still in his own white sailing shorts and shirt and had not been fully "Nautored-up" - he was also sticking to his own sun-glasses, rather than the team issue and his face was plastered with sun-block. The boat came alongside and soon Cayard was heaving sails up and down the ramp like any run-of-the-mill deck hand.

Then came the introduction to the press. Initially Nautor had planned to do this in the antiseptic environment of the main Volvo press centre, but then changed their minds and decided that it would look better to have Cayard introduced on the dock or on the boat. It would seem, they believed, a bit more action-orientated that way.

To begin with the two men were ushered onto the bow to take a photo call. The body language said it all. Cayard, the tall intellectual racer he is, next to the small, wide and well-weathered tough-guy Dalton. Chalk and cheese. They were standing a little apart and, prompted by the photographers - among them Britain's Rick Tomlinson - they got a bit closer and Cayard even slapped his arm around Dalts. But the Kiwi looked a bit uneasy.

Contined on page 2...

No 'invasion of body space' there then...